Visit With a Healthy Toddler

I got to spend three days last week with Mr. B. and his parents, and amazingly, he was healthy which made us all happy! His Mom said that he was fond of twice baked potatoes, so we made some. He went crazy for the beaters when I mashed the potatoes. Once baked, he loved that too, but he tried to share the skin with the kitty, who wasn't having any of it.


Kate said that he liked vanilla yogurt, and I'll let the picture speak for itself. =) He ate continuously while I was there and even offered to share bites of his waffle. (Icky, but his heart was in the right place.) We had all sorts of fun and he was a good sport about the quilt shop, having been indoctrinated early.

On the home front, we have been working in the yard every afternoon and have moved through about 2/3 of the flower beds. Our nasty clay soil, though heavily amended when we first planted, is back to it's usual self in some places, so we are amending yet again. Thankfully, our homemade compost is saving the day.

On the book front, I finished Amalgamation Polka by Stephen Wright, an odd tale of a young man born to abolitionist parents in the pre-Civil War era. Very quirky, but entertaining.

Happy Birthday Kato!!!!

Happy 28th Birthday to my beloved daughter Kate!

Kate made her appearance at St. Mary's Hospital in Reno, Nevada on Saturday, April 22, 1978 at 2:26 p.m. She was two weeks early by the Dr.'s calculations and weighed in at 6 lbs., 4 oz. and 20 inches long.

After a stay of a couple of days at the hospital, Kate came home and began getting the lay of the land. Her Grandmother Brackett was there to help out and Kate returned the favor by letting her have the early a.m. shift during the scream-a-thon that became a daily/nightly ritual.

She is pictured at the left with me on the day after her birth.

The first year of Kate's life was very long. She hated being a helpless baby and as each milestone passed and she became more independent, her attitude improved considerably.

In the blink of an eye, Kate was chomping down some cake on her first birthday. Her party had an all-star cast including her Grandparents Marge and Jack Gibson, her Grandparents John and Wilma Brackett (she is pictured with her Poppi B. at right), Poppi's sister Aunt Madaline and her husband Merle, Madaline's son, Cousin Barry and his new bride Tova, and Aunt Gail Morris and her family.

Kate impressed one and all by taking five steps between her father and mother that day with all the witnesses. It may be noted that she didn't walk independently again for two months!! Talk about a show off!

A few years later, Kate and I went to Disneyland with our long-time friend Chris and her daughter Mallory to celebrate Kate's 4th birthday. To the left, she is pictured on her bike wearing her souvenir Mickey Mouse ears and T-shirt.

During her Junior year of college, step-sister and bosom buddy Sarah was studying abroad at the University of Leeds in England. We decided to celebrate their mututal 21st birthdays (Sarah is in one week on the 29th) by taking Kate to England with us when we visited Sarah. The girls took a 24 hour trip to Paris while we slept off the trip and we ended

up in an Edinburgh, Scotland pub to celebrate their first legal drink together. (Even though neither was quite 21 and the drinking age in the U.K. is 18). Aren't they beautiful??

Kate continued to grow up to be a wonderful woman. She's married to Steve and mother of the amazing Mr. B.

So, on your 28th birthday, I say to you, my darling daughter, happy, happy day and many, many more. I love you tons!!

xoxoxoxoxo
your mommo

Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On

Today is the 100th anniversary of the San Francisco Earthquake, sanitized to be known in history as the "Great San Francisco Fire" so as not to inhibit rebuilding of that great, but shaky city. The quake occurred at 5:12 a.m.

At that time, my grandmother was 17 years old and living with her mother in the city. My great grandmother, Rachel Samuel is the woman seated on the left side of the shanty they jokingly named "Cafe Tincana." The young woman standing to the right pouring tea is either my grandmother Emma or her older sister Etta. I've not been able to identify the others in the picture. Hubby and I were watching a special on KRON/4 Sunday night and one of the pictures that flashed on the screen was of Rachel taken from a different angle.

My grandmother died when I was eight years old, so I never heard about the event from her, and by the time I asked my great-aunt, Etta about it, she really didn't remember much. Too bad, I would love to know the stories of my family members who were there.

According to the shows we watched, much of the city was rebuilt without proper building codes in order that rebuilding progress as quickly as possible. Scary!

I love San Francisco and always will, but I hope the next BIG one happens when I'm not there!

Fun Quilty Stuff

Last weekend, I got to go to the Napa quilt show where I met my buddy Kathy B. from Yolo and her school nurse buddy Debbie and Debbie's sister Stephanie. Debbie and Stephanie are new quilters, being mentored by Kathy and they were on a mission to find Southwestern fabric for a quilt for a relative in Arizona. After the show, we visited Quiltmaker in downtown Napa before heading our separate ways.
Pictured to the left is my new pincushion, purchased at the quilt show. She is made of a couple of log cabin blocks in sweet 1930's reproduction fabrics and I've named her Gretl.

Lately, I've been working on a swap of "Widdle Biddy Blocks" with my pal Nancy, near Philadelphia. I was soooooo behind in making the blocks that we declared a three month break from January to March so I could catch up (not to mention the birth of Nancy's grandson Sam on February 1st!!!). Here are my blocks for August through December (2 per month). Nancy got caught up with the six blocks for January, February and March and I still have those to do. We've decided to continue on at one block per month, which will be much easier to stay up on.

I have other swap blocks of 1930's repros and think I may use one of Judy Martin's fabulous new sets from her book Knockout Blocks and Sampler Quilts. Judy has been a quilt maven since the early resurgence of quilting in the late 70's and I try to collect all of her books. Not always easy as she owns her publishing company and some are out-of-print, but Ebay and Half.com have come through for me more than once.

Tomorrow, I'll be working on some Frienship Blocks for guild, so more later.